Zum Geburstag viel Glück

My workplace has a nice tradition. Whenever a colleague has his/her birthday, we gather in the corridor, present them a greeting card and sing the birthday song… in German. Since I can’t speak German, for the first few times, I just stood there, arms crossed, smiling nervously while everybody else sang. I would breathe a sigh of relief once it ended. Later I looked up the lyrics and now I feel part of the choir. The song goes like this:

Zum Geburstag viel Glück (Literal translation: for the birthday, lots of luck),

Zum Geburstag viel Glück,

Zum Geburstag liebe Lydia / lieber Kedar (for the birthday, dear Lydia/Kedar),

Zum Geburstag viel Glück!

The tune is same as the tune for ‘Happy birthday to you’ song. Once the song is over, the colleague makes a short speech which includes telling us when we can expect a cake in the kitchen. Then everyone shakes hands with him/her and returns to work. Nice, right?

Except, I have this condition called hyperhydrosis, which means my palms are moist for the most part of the day (irrespective of the outside temperature). Anxiety of shaking hands makes it worse. Normally I wouldn’t think twice about shaking hands with one or two persons because I quickly use my handkerchief or rub my palms over jeans to keep them dry. But shaking sixty hands on my birthday? I don't know how to approach this; to look weird rubbing palms over jeans repeatedly or to keep the handkerchief in my hand all the time and risk coming across as discourteous. All I know is I’m going to need all the Glück I can get on that day.

Till next time, tschüss!